While walking in Echo Park today, I discovered this little free fold-out map & shopping guide…. Continue reading
Which Guey, L.A.
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Category Archives: Eastside
Invisible Heights
It’s pretty common for me to have to explain the placement of Lincoln Heights in Los Angeles. Â Most are oblivious to its very existence. Â After the jump is a sample conversation:
In Quotes: East Side Stories
If you take even a casual interest in some of the literature about Los Angeles (you know, like in books) you’ll eventually run across references to the Eastside that are properly located and don’t play around with those coy and “fluid” demarcations that have been the rage amongst the newbie set; its East of the river, y punto. I come across these references every once in awhile and I get a tiny jolt of satisfaction seeing them in print, an insignificant validation of what most of us already know. That glee quickly turns into a sigh when I think about it for a second; this shouldn’t even be an issue. Que se le va hacer?
Well, this is what I plan to do: instead of getting angry about yet another careless use of the term by people that don’t matter, I’m hoping to occasionally post some quotes, references, or pictures that give the communities East of the River the respect they deserve. Easy enough, que no?
Tacos de Papa
I’ve dated a couple of vegetarians in my day, and they were the first ones I ever saw order tacos de papa. The first time I tasted them, I thought “They’re ok.” I was never into the tacos with the hardened / fried shell. My mom loves tacos with hardened / fried shells, but she never made tacos de papa. I began eating them at the monthly Caracol Marketplace. These are very good tacos de papa.
They got shredded cabbage, homemade guacamole, some cheese, sour cream and of course fried tortilla and papa. This weekend we stopped by for breakfast and my picky eater of a daughter loved them! So I decided I need to learn how to make my own. Here is what I came up with.
It has cilantro-jalape~o hummus, fresh sliced tomato, Tapatio sauce and of course fried tortilla and papas. It’s a gentrified taco de papa since everything except the Tapatio sauce is from Trader Joe’s. I hope she likes them.
The origins of “El Verde”
Just who is “El Verde” ? How did he come to be ? What’s his favorite kind of tamal ? Those are all questions that will be answered when “El Verde” returns to Casa 0101 this weekend. I had the opportunity to interview Anthony Aguilar, who is the writer and actor behind “El Verde,” to explain some of the shows conceptual origins. For those of you who aren’t familiar with “El Verde,” the show follows the heroic/comedic escapades of Arturo Sanchez, who immigrated from Mexico to live a normal life, but had his world forever changed when he was involved in a freak elote accident, turning him into “El Verde.” Continue reading
The baby sparrow I found
 Say hello to my little friend, Passer Domesticus AKA chirpy-boy or as the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services knows him, A0968416  N  . I found chirpy-boy Friday night while walking back home when I saw him/her in the corner of my eye. Chirpy-boy was on the floor next to a wall. I walked up to him/her and instead of flying away, he/she bounced away and that’s when I knew something was wrong with him/her. I chased him/her a little bit more to make sure and he/she could fly away and he/she didn’t. I also noticed how small chirpy-boy is, so I knew he/she was still a baby. I managed to corner chirpy-boy and grab him/her with my hand. In my hand I could feel all of chirpy-boys body trembling and his heart pounding. It felt as if my whole hand was throbbing at a high rate. At the same time when I picked up chirpy-boy he/she screamed and bit my palm as hard as he/she could, it didn’t hurt. One thing you have to understand about me is that I’m an animal advocate,lover and owner of a black lab (Harley Quinn) that saved my life and helped me lose 20 lbs. Animals and advocating for their welfare is something close to my heart. I have written about the horrors of puppy mills/pet stores, at my schools news paper and have helped other’s realize/understand that if they decided to take in an animal, adopting is always the best bet. (This could go on for days so yeah, I’ll stop now). With chirpy-boy in one hand and my birthday cake on the other, I headed home and made arrangements for chirpy-boy spending the night until the morning, when I would take him to the North Central Animal Shelter.Â
Westside or Eastside?
(This post was submitted by a reader of the site, some text dealing with the whole Eastside/Westside “debate”. It might have already been said, but it’s good to remember this info.)
Recently, I received an email posting about a new magazine set to launch soon. What’s wrong with that you ask? The magazine is going to cover the new “eastside”…..say what?!
Traditionally, Angelenos have referred to Los Angeles by two major halves: Westside and Eastside. In recent years during the process of gentrification, demographic shifts, and social trends, there have been some efforts in renaming geographic areas from its traditional identifiers.
As the areas of Echo Park and Silverlake began to emerge in the 90’s as hip and trendy neighborhoods, some people have been on a quest to rename these locations and its surrounding areas as the new “eastside.”
Eastside 101: Elotes
Okay kids, lets lower those voices, class is about to begin. Ahem. Thank you all for showing up to yet another lesson in the Eastside 101 lecture series, an online extension program of the UGTWHTUPAY4 university. For those of you that have been taking notes, this series was started some time ago over at blogging.la as a way to shine some light on the life of those on the Eastside, that seemingly invisible place just on the other side of the river. Though the original mission of this series seems to have served its purpose (namely, defending the definition of the term Eastside) I still have a few insights and tips to share with all of you that might be interested. I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t unintentionally give away some secrets!
Oh yeah, the subject this time is Elotes!
The dancing bicycle rider of Boyle Heights
I need some help. The man in the picture below is a complete mystery to me. He may look like an ordinary man riding his bicycle, but he’s not. I have come across this man before and I haven’t been able to get a clear picture of him, till now. Even though he’s missing half his arm and leg, you can get a good view of the man who rides around yelling and performing acrobatics/dancing on his bicycle.
Don’t Flip THIS House!
Rudy Martinez a character on A&E’s Flip This House, along with his associate, Paul Pagnone comprise the Piedmont Investment Company, the development firm that recently purchased the historic Self Help Graphics & Art Building in East Los Angeles.
The Self Help Graphics & Art building, a visual art piece of tile work by international artist Eduardo Oropeza, has been a sanctuary for over 30 years to hundreds of marginalized artists. Through Self Help Graphics’ print ateliers, use of studio spaces, premiere instruction, use of gallery walls and mutual interchange—major Los Angeles artistic voices were born. It is not by chance that an overwhelming number of artists whose work is now exhibited in the Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement and the Cheech Marin collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) have a deep allegiance to Self Help Graphics.
Botanitas: July 18, 2008
Vexing: Female Voices from East LA Punk, Claremont Museum through Aug 31.
Botanitas is an ongoing feature bringing you stories and news from various sources, upcoming events and other bits of ephemera that might be of interest to LA Eastside readers. Suggestions welcome!
Bridging the grade divide in Lincoln Heights
Residential Food Scrap Pilot Program
Old Los Angeles
click through to read >>> Continue reading
Churros
Walking down Cesar Chavez yesterday to go see my friend at work I was thinking, “Man I could sure go for a churro right about now. That sweet,greasy stick always hits the spot anytime, anywhere.” Just as I think my hunger for churros will go unfulfilled, I see a man and his cart standing in front of the Big Buy full of churros. 
Four for a dollar he yelled and like Batman to the bat-signal, I grab a dollar from my pocket and with a smile on my face I asked him to help me fulfill my sugary craving. The vendor was an older looking man, late ’40s early ’50s, he had a light beer smell to him, possibly budweiser and looked as if he just crawled from under a pickup truck. Despite his rugged appearance I didn’t hesitate as I took a bite of my churro, still warm and soft as it was recently made. The man told me that his suegra had rushed him out the door to go and sell after she finished making them. He asked her if he could have one more beer before he left the house, but no dice. Across the street from him other people were selling other various foods and random items. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sunday it gets packed on that side walk with people buying food and just enjoying themselves. However I digress from my point, which is that no matter what your craving there will be someone in a cart or stand selling what ever your craving for a reasonable price and extremely delicious. I <3 Boyle Heights. Â